For a second consecutive year, Pathway Lending was among the organizations awarded Federal New Markets Tax Credits from the US Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI) with an allocation of $40 million. This year’s $5 billion round went to 107 Community Development Entities (CDE) nationwide, selected from a competitive pool of applicants, to spur investment and economic growth in low-income communities.
This award brings Pathway Lending’s total allocation to $70 million for the two-year period, which it leverages with additional private investment in distressed urban and rural communities in Tennessee and Alabama. To date, selected projects have focused on financing rural manufacturing, community health and educational facilities that create and maintain quality jobs and bring needed services to distressed areas throughout the region.
Projects Pathway Lending financed with its first allocation include facility upgrades for Lodge Manufacturing, a family-owned company in South Pittsburg, Tennessee and the largest domestic producer of cast iron cookware. NMTC financing for $6.75 million went to purchase equipment to control air temperature and quality, automate packing, and eliminate the need for employees to wear respirators in the Lodge facility, and to bring on more permanent employees. Lodge expects to retain 307 permanent jobs and create 155 more with 100 percent of these jobs offering benefits and an average hourly wage of $23.36.
This latest round of funding brings the total amount awarded nationally through the NMTC Program to more than $71 billion. Historically, NMTC Program awards have generated $8 of private investment for every $1 invested by the federal government. Through the end of fiscal year 2021, NMTC Program award recipients deployed more than $62.9 billion in investments in low-income communities and businesses.
About Pathway Lending
Founded in 1999 and based in Nashville, Pathway Lending is a community development financial institution (CDFI) certified by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. It has grown to become a major lending institution in the Southeast, propelling meaningful economic growth in communities across the region. In 2021, Pathway Lending made more than $57.7 million in loans and delivered 16,557 hours of technical assistance and education.
Pathway Lending established its Community Development Entity in 2016 with the express purpose of attracting greater New Markets Tax Credits investments to Tennessee, a state the CDFI Fund has identified as underserved by the NMTC program for many years. Pathway CDE secured its first allocation in December 2021.
